Veronica Belmont
Veronica Ann Belmont (born July 21, 1982), Destroyer of Worlds is the co-host of the Revision3 show Tekzilla alongside Patrick Norton, and host of the monthly PlayStation 3-based video on demand program Qore. Formerly she was the host for the Mahalo Daily podcast and a producer and associate editor for CNET Networks, Inc. where she produced, engineered, and co-hosted the podcast Buzz Out Loud. Background At the time of Belmont's birth, her mother was a vice president at Coleco. Belmont attended Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, to study audio production and new media studies. She worked briefly in Boston afterwards, and eventually secured an internship at CNET. Veronica currently resides in San Francisco, California with her boyfriend, former Engadget editor Ryan Block. Career CNET Belmont started as an intern producing audio content for CNET Networks. She was hired full-time six months later to produce their "First Look from the Labs" series, and also began producing Buzz Out Loud. Originally she was the sound engineer and producer of the show, but her role on the podcast grew substantially. She began to inject her own commentary, and was acknowledged as an official co-host in August 2006. She also was the producer and co-host of two more CNET podcasts called MP3 Insider and CRAVE Gadget Blog, which were both co-hosted by the late James Kim. Belmont made her video debut on CNET on April 6, 2006, on an Insider Secrets segment titled "Give your PC a Mac-over". Since then, she has hosted videos from Maker Faire, CES, and South by Southwest. She was also the host of the Prizefight series. She appeared for the final time in CNET TV on July 25, 2007, in the iPhone vs Nokia N95 edition of Prizefight". Belmont also appeared on Shovio.com to talk about her career. This interview is in their archives under "On Demand". Mahalo Belmont left CNET on July 20, 2007 to join Mahalo. She hosted and produced her own podcast called Mahalo Daily covering subjects of her choosing. Her first video was an interview with Leeroy Jenkins at BlizzCon 2007. On April 2, 2008, Veronica announced that she would be leaving Mahalo Daily within two weeks. This was reported by TV Week on April 3, 2008. Revision3 On April 9, 2008, Revision3 announced that Veronica Belmont will be joining the Revision3 staff as co-host of Tekzilla. Qore In June 2008, Sony Computer Entertainment announced a new subscription-based "monthly lifestyle gaming program" called Qore that would be hosted by Belmont. Sword and Laser On October 16, 2007, Belmont started co-hosting a podcast with Tom Merritt of CNET and TWIT's Tech News Today fame. As the name implies, it is strictly about science-fiction and fantasy books and debuted with Neuromancer by William Gibson. Prior to the creation of the podcast, it was a book club in forum form. This format lasted through the first 3 books, which were, The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and American Gods by Neil Gaiman, with the subsequent creation of the podcast. Appearances In June 2007, Belmont was a curator at the first annual Pixelodeon Festival, alongside other web starlets like Amanda Congdon. On November 14, 2007, she was a contestant on a game show at NewTeeVee Live featuring other internet celebrities such as Casey McKinnon, Kevin Rose, Justin Kan, Robert Scoble, and others. At the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Las Vegas, Belmont (and Mahalo Daily) covered the event for tech site Engadget. In the finale of the Jonathan Coulton DVD "Best.Concert.Ever", Belmont played guitar in the game RockBand for the song "Still Alive". She has also made numerous guest appearances on other technology and gaming podcasts, including Diggnation, this WEEK in TECH, Cranky Geeks and The 404 podcast. On August 20, 2009 Veronica hosted Rifftrax Live, an evening of live riffing on Plan 9 From Outer Space, with Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett, simulcast in movie theaters nationwide. On November 11, 2009, Veronica co-hosted Attack of the Show with Chris Hardwick on G4. Veronica has also been on The Instance with Scott Johnson and Randy Jordan, otherwise known as Randy Deluxe. On October 23, 2009, and March 12, 2010, Veronica was a guest on Talkradar, GamesRadar.com's weekly podcast, hosted by Chris Antista, Mikel Reparez, and Brett Elston. Awards Belmont was named Sexiest Geek by Violet Blue in her 2007 Top 10 Sexiest Geeks list. Category:Hosts Category:The Instance Category:Sword and Laser